The field of computer network security has become increasingly important and complicated in today's society. Computer network environments are configured for virtually every enterprise or organization, typically with multiple interconnected computers (e.g., end user computers, laptops, servers, mobile devices, etc.). In many such enterprises, Information Technology (IT) administrators may be tasked with maintenance and control of the network environment, including executable software files and other objects on hosts, servers, and other computers. As the number of computers in a network environment increases, the ability to control, maintain, and remediate the executable software files on those computers efficiently can become more difficult.
Scanning executable software files and other objects is a technique that is often used to detect malware or other threats on a computer. Scanning, however, requires time and processing cycles, thus consuming valuable network resources. As the number of computers in a network environment increases, the need for network resources to manage security can escalate. Moreover, network resources may often be used to perform duplicative scans of the same objects on different network nodes. Thus, innovative tools are needed to provide effective security in computer networks, while minimizing the consumption of network resources to provide such security.